Most youths in America today haven’t the same opportunities as inner city kids like this writer growing up. When good public schools prepared students for college.

When it was affordable. When many public colleges and universities were tuition-free. When student debt entrapment didn’t exist. When America was the world’s leading industrial economy. When full-time high-pay/good benefits jobs were plentiful.

When each generation was financially better off than earlier ones. When wages kept up with inflation. When America’s middle class thrived. When corporations and high-income earners paid their fair share in taxes.

Before class war pitted private wealth against popular interests more than ever. Before social justice began eroding toward eliminating it altogether.

Before more powerful than ever monopolies and oligopolies controlled finance, industry and commerce. Before media was controlled by a handful of giants – featuring managed news misinformation rubbish, suppressing hard truths on vital issues.

Before endless US wars raged in multiple global theaters. Before America’s largest budget commitment was for militarism, wars and world dominance.

Before super-weapons could kill us all. Before lunatics in Washington perhaps intend using them – threatening life on earth.

Before America became a police state – eliminating constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. Before they began disappearing in plain sight.

Before Washington’s bipartisan criminal class became more corrupted than ever. Before inequality became institutionalized. Before poverty became a growth industry.

Before protracted unemployment at Depression era levels while America’s super-rich never had it better.

When market manipulation distorts reality more than ever. When equities soared in value despite a Main Street Depression. When force-fed austerity became official policy at a time stimulus is vitally needed.

When a 1913 pre-Fed dollar isn’t worth a plug nickel today. Money power in private hands bears full responsibility for today’s market turbulence. Throughout its history, the Fed caused:

17 recessions, including the Great Depression;

rising consumer debt;

record budget and trade deficits;

soaring national debt at $18.4 trillion exceeding GDP;

high personal and business bankruptcies – in Q 1 2015, publicly traded company bankruptcies rose to the highest level since 2010;

over five million home foreclosures since 2008 – Washington did nothing to resolve the crisis – expect increasing numbers ahead as economic numbers weaken;

Casino capitalism replaced industrial America. Instead of making better things for better living, financialization fosters unprecedented greed, fueled by limitless amounts of central bank created money used to make more of it.

As long as money power in private hands runs America, expect no end of massive fraud, grand theft, insider trading, misrepresentation, Ponzi schemes, false accounting, market manipulation, toxic financial products, unprecedented profits, as well as massive public deception and harm.

Keynes warned about “enterprise becom(ing) (a hugely disruptive) bubble on a whirlpool of speculation.” It’s worse than ever in today’s America and Europe – destroying the welfare and futures of countless millions.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.